The Rules for Disappearing (33 page)

I turn over and face him. My hands find his face. His feet tangle with mine. “Yes. Ethan Landry, I would love to go to the dance with you.”

He pulls me in for a kiss and all thoughts of sleep run right out of my head.

My eyes sting when I try to open them. It’s still dark, but I see the S—

faint glow of early morning sun through the divide in the curtain.

N—

I move my hand slowly, not wanting to wake Ethan, and check my 276

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watch. 5 a.m. This is the time to make my move. I will slide out of this bed, leave him a note, and grab the keys. By the time he wakes up, I’ll be gone and he’ll be out of danger.

My back is to him so I don’t know if he’s awake or not. Listening to his breathing, it sounds deep and heavy so I slowly inch my way to the edge of the bed. Once I get there, I roll to my stomach and drop my arm and leg over the side. Then the rest of my body follows. It feels like forever, but finally I’m on the floor on all fours.

I’m dying to take a peek but I don’t risk it. I crawl around the bed to the small desk against the other wall. I can’t even think about the nastiness on the floor right now.

I get to the desk and pull down the small pad and pen left there and scribble a quick note. I fish the keys out of the pocket of his jacket then jam my feet in my shoes. My hand goes to the knob.

“There’s no reason to do the crawl of shame this morning. I

thought we kept it fairly clean last night.” I hear the laughter in his voice and drop my hand.

I stand up and look back to the bed. Ethan is propped up on

pillows with his hands behind his head, watching my every move.

He pats the bed beside him. “It’s early and you’re not leaving without me so come back to bed and let’s figure out what we’re gonna do.”

I huff back to the bed, both annoyed and relieved that my plan failed. Ethan pulls me to him and I snuggle in close.

“What does the note say?” He whispers.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”

He squeezes my side. “You were really going to leave without

—S

me?”

—N

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I rise up on my elbows. “I’m not completely helpless, ya know. I have managed to take care of things up until this point.” Granted, he’s gotten us farther faster than I ever would have accomplished on my own, but damn, I’m not some damsel in distress.

He runs his hand through my hair. “I know. I’m sorry. I just

don’t want to miss out on the breaking and entering.”

“You’ve gone insane.” I lie back down, my head on his chest.

“I’ve been thinking about what to do with the ledgers once we

get them,” he says,

I prop myself up on my hands and look at him. “What?”

“Let’s talk this out. So, your dad’s boss is dead and now the asshole with the scar thinks he’ll never find the ledgers. He was going to kill you until you told him you knew where they were. He left you alive, knowing the cops were coming, so he didn’t really care that you could ID him. Right?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I answer. For some reason, I don’t like where this is going.

“So I figure, he’s confident he can get to you before any trial or testimony or you’d be dead. But he can’t get the ledgers without you. Your dad wants to make some sort of deal with him but I don’t know what you could do that doesn’t get you killed in the end.”

I take a deep breath and say, “I know. I thought maybe we could make a copy and put it somewhere safe, or something like that. Tell him if something happens, it goes straight to the suits—ya know, like they do in the movies.”

He nods, “Yeah, we could do that. It’d have to be a great spot S—

where he can’t find it.”

N—

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hair. “I hate to let him get away with killing Brandon. I don’t care about the drug stuff or the money laundering but he shouldn’t be able to walk away from that,” I say.

He drops his hand from my head. “I just got a crazy wicked

idea.”

I look back up at him. “Oh God, the way you say that makes me

nervous.”

“Okay, hear me out. What if we release it to the world?”

“What?”

“We make a video. You tell the whole story about the murders

and what you’ve been through. Then we scan the pages of the ledgers and attach it to the video. Then we could upload it to Facebook or YouTube or something like that. You can also say if you or any member of your family dies—he did it!”

I sit up in the bed. “That’s insane! What would stop him from

killing me after that?”

“He’s going to have bigger problems than you. All his shit is

public knowledge. The cops can arrest him. And then he’s got that cartel in Mexico to worry about. What good would killing you do and the Feds won’t need you anymore.”

“He’d kill me just because I pissed him off!”

Ethan sits up in the bed and pulls me in close. “Anna, there’s a good chance he’s going to try to kill you anyway. He’s found out where you’ve been even though you are being protected by the government. You think he can’t find which safety deposit box you’re using to hide your copy of the ledgers?”

I pull away from him and roll over, putting my back to him.

—S

He leans in over my shoulder and says, “Just think about it.

—N

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That’s all I’m asking. Tell me more about the house.”

I flip back around. “It’s a tough house to get into. We shouldn’t have a problem with the main gate, it’s the one for his neighborhood that’s gonna be tricky.”

I describe the layout to him and we both toss around sugges-

tions, none really feeling right.

“Didn’t you say your friend Elle lives behind that gate, too?”

“I can’t call her.”

Ethan waits a few minutes and then says, “You don’t really have to involve her too much. But if we can hide in the back of her car, we’re in. We could get in the entire community that way. I have a bad feeling the Marshals are gonna be waiting for us there. They know how bad you want to go home. And now it makes sense why

you don’t want them to find you either.”

He’s right. It would be easy on a normal day to get past the

front gate. I could say we’re applying for a job at the clubhouse.
Go
on back.
Or I could say we’re with a pool cleaning service.
Go on
back.
It’s a joke really. But The Reserve is different. Nothing back there but houses. And anyone not on the list has to be okayed by phone before you get through. I’m sure I’m still on the list as Anna Boyd, but that won’t work. Everyone looking for me is waiting for something as stupid as that.
If Anna Boyd comes through, detain her
immediately!

“I’m still sort of mad at her.” It’s embarrassing saying it out loud but true. Most of my anger toward them
is
gone but I really didn’t ever want to see either one of them again.

S—

Ethan lies down beside me and asks what happened. I cover my

N—

face with a pillow and tell him.

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“Brandon, this is the guy who died?”

I let out a muffled yes.

“Do they know you heard them?”

I pull the pillow down and look at him. “No, but that’s not the point.”

Ethan flips me around until I’m on top of him. “If we have to

use some two-faced bitch to help get you out of trouble then that’s what we’ll do.”

I lean down and kiss him. He rolls me over, fitting us together like a glove.

“My mind is so foggy right now. What day is it?”

“Friday. Why?”

I glance at my watch. Five thirty. “You’re right. It’s stupid not to use Elle to get us in there. I don’t want to call her in case they’re watching her phone but I know where she’ll be in an hour and a half.” I’d bet my life she and Laura are at our favorite coffee shop having our traditional Friday morning cup of latte.

“How much time before we have to leave?” Ethan says between

tiny kisses.

I can’t concentrate on anything while he does that. “Um . . .

maybe thirty minutes . . . or forty-five . . . I think.”

He looks at me with that bad boy smirk, “Perfect, ’cause I was just getting comfortable.”

—S

—N

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RULES FOR DISAPPEARING

BY WITNESS PROTECTION PRISONER #18A7R04M:

Know when to call in reinforcements.

We pull up to Sola Coffee Bar in the middle of Old Town in

Scottsdale. We’re a few minutes early, mainly so we can make sure Elle’s not being followed. We’re being overly paranoid at this point but we haven’t been caught by the suits or Sanchez’s men yet, and I’d like to keep it that way.

Like clockwork, Elle and Laura pull in the lot. I’m a mixed bag of emotions when I see them—the humiliation and anger floods

back but I’m also a bit relieved to see my spot in the backseat hasn’t been filled. I’m nervous now that they’re so close. They both get out of Elle’s car and I watch them walk toward the coffee shop. They haven’t changed; both still have long blond hair, perpetually tanned skin, and look gorgeous. Laura looks a little too thin though and it’s the first time I think about how she might have felt about Brandon and what it was like for her once he died. Were they getting serious? Did she really like him? Or even love him?

S—

“This was a ritual for us on Friday mornings. It’s out of the

N—

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way from our houses to school, but this is the coolest coffee shop in town. So worth the effort.”

Ethan grabs my hand. “Are you ready for this?”

“I haven’t even told you thanks once. But thanks for everything.”

He pulls me back in and kisses me hard and quick, then we both get out of the car. I have the contacts back in, although I don’t think anyone is going to recognize me with the short, dark hair.

Hand in hand we walk into the coffee shop. I spot Elle and

Laura at our usual table in the back, but I quickly look away. This reveal is going to have to be done with the utmost care. We walk toward them, Ethan blocking most of me from their view.

They both glance at us and then again at Ethan with some

interest and I’m ridiculously pleased about this. He’s hot. And he’s mine. We take a table next to them, and I sit in the chair that puts my back to their table.

Ethan leans in close. “Okay, sit tight.”

Our plan is that Ethan will sit down at their table and quietly tell them I’m right next to them. Hopefully they won’t make a huge scene. He’s not at their table thirty seconds before I hear them squeal and race to my table.

They do a double take then throw their arms around me.

Ethan comes quickly back to our table, trying to quiet them

down.

“Please, y’all sit down. We don’t need all this attention.”

Laura and Elle sit on either side of me, taking my hands. Ethan takes the seat across the table. It’s weird that they’re this happy to see me and all I want to do is scream,
Why were you making fun of me?

—S

—N

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“Oh my God, Anna. Where in the hell have you been? You just

friggin’ disappeared one day,” Elle says as she squeezes all the blood out of my hand.

“And what did you do to your hair? It’s so short. And black.”

Laura puts her free hand in my hair. “And your eyes! Are those colored contacts?”

Ethan shushes everyone. “Please, let’s whisper and calm down.”

Both Elle and Laura look at Ethan.

“And who are you?” Elle can sound super bitchy when she

wants to.

“That’s Ethan and he’s my boyfriend.” I hate the blush that’s

creeping up my neck when I say this. “If you’ll calm down, I’ll explain.”

They turn back to me.

“I need you both right now. I can’t get into details but please trust me when I say you cannot tell a single person you saw me here. No one. Not your parents. Nobody.” There’s no way they won’t tell, but hopefully they’ll keep quiet long enough for us to stash a copy of the ledgers first. Or get it on YouTube. Or whatever we decide.

“What’s going on, Anna?”

“The only thing I can tell you is my family is fine.” Little white lie. “We won’t be moving back to Scottsdale any time soon. I can’t be seen here and you can’t tell anyone anything about me. I’m asking you both as my best friends in the whole wide world to please do this for me.” Let’s see how much this means to them.

S—

They look back and forth between me and Ethan.

N—

“Anna, what do you need?” Laura asks.

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“Ethan and I need you to get us into The Reserve. I want you

to drop us off in front of that small overgrown section, around the corner from the gate house.”

They wait for me to say something else. When I don’t, Laura

says, “Then what?”

I paste a smile on my face. It feels fake and probably looks worse.

“That’s it. We’ll take it from there.”

Elle shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it. If you go in, you have to come out. Won’t you need help with that too?”

I’m not telling her the rest of the plan no matter how sweetly she acts. If the ledger isn’t there I want them to be able to say they dropped us off and never saw us again.